If clergy are allowed to have favourite
pieces of scripture then the Gospel Lesson we are using on Sunday has got to be
one of mine (Luke 1.24-36). It is the Annunciation of the Lord Jesus to Mary.
In recent weeks there has been a show on television put together by a bunch
people, for a purpose that is not totally clear to me. That is unless they wish
to shoot do all the traditional doctrine that surrounds Jesus that has
accumulated over the past two millenniums and try to rip out the foundations of
the largest faith on the planet.
Problem is, not one of these people is a
trained theologian. They are professors from history and religious studies
departments and they have no training in terms of theology. Worse, they are
posing modern, post enlightenment writing standards on what was a largely oral
culture. Was there editing and revision? Yes. Of course there was. It took time
for the things that the Church believed to be delineated and accepted. The
Scriptures are holy to the community because they belong to the community.
Modern understandings of ancient texts cannot begin with a word processor. It
didn’t work that way. Altering a text was done in and by the community, not
just a single solitary soul. The community accepted what was written and it
took time for the Scriptures to become sacred to the community.
One of the things that makes this particular
passage powerful for me is the fact that Luke, in order to get his orderly
account, must have spent time with Mary and the family from which Jesus came.
Mary herself must have at some point relayed something of the experience of the
Annunciation. It is why we have it. It points to the great truths to the wider
story of God working out our rescue, our salvation. The Annunciation is the
fulfilling of the promise that was made in those awful, final moments in the
Garden.
What promise? Try Genesis 3.15, when God
tells the serpent that there will be hostilities between the seed of the woman
and the seed of the serpent; that the serpent will strike his heel and the Seed
of the Woman will crush him. God in Christ is working to bring us back and to
bring us home that we can be with him and be with him forever and ever. There is nothing and no one that will stop
that. One day he will come again, and the angels and the new City and we will
be with him.
It is not something that diviners can see. It
is not something that any historian or university professor can predict. This
is God’s doing and it ought to be marvelous in our eyes. He has made his
dwelling among us and we have seen the glory of the One and only, full of grace
and truth (John 1.14-18)
Take time to be with family this Christmas.
Take the time to be with friends and those whom you care about and who care for
you. And in the midst of it all, make room for him who loves us; who left his
Father’s presence to bring us home and spend some time giving thanks that our
rescue is in hand for what is ahead. And most of all remember what Mary said, “I
am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me as you have said.”
When my wife and I were expecting our first son, we had a
book in the house that was new at the time. It was called “What to expect when
you are expecting.” Of course such a book is considered to be mandatory reading
these days in getting ready for a baby. No one... nobody should leave for the
hospital before you've read it. But what do you read and what do you need to
know when you are expecting a Messiah?
John questions Jesus through his disciples, “Are you the
one or should we wait for another?” (Matthew 11.2-11) John asks the question because
Jesus was not acting like many thought the Messiah of Israel. He was not there
to kick butt and take names. He was not leading a war against the occupying
Roman Army and its Empire. There was no bloodshed, wailing, crying or annihilation
of garrisons of soldiers. In other words, Jesus by John’s estimation was not
acting like the Messiah many were expecting him to be. And because what he was
hearing about the Messiah and his ministry he needed to find out if his
announcement of the king and his kingdom was premature or mistimed in some way.
Had John gotten it wrong and had he put his faith in the wrong horse?
We need to be careful when looking for God to do
something: his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts because
his ways and thoughts are higher than ours. He sees from another perspective
and has his plan of salvation, of rescuing of us to fulfill. Therefore Jesus
tells John’s disciples to go back and report what they see happening around
them: the blind can see, the deaf can hear, the lame can walk, the leapers are
made clean, the dead rise and the poor receive the good news of the kingdom
that is to come. The kingdom that was and is expected is breaking into this
world but it is not all that it is yet. Blessed are you if you don’t fall away because
you don’t see me doing what you think I should be doing.
In essence, we are being challenged to redefine what we
are expecting when we are expecting the Messiah. God’s kingdom is not like the
kingdoms of this earth – Jesus made that clear before Pilate. Yet so often we
live our lives and our faith as if it is the kingdom of me and mine: me, me,
me. Mine, mine, mine. The kingdom has to conform to me and to my thoughts and
my doctrine or it isn't right. It is rather idolatrous of us to think and act
as such. We need to deal with it before God and with each other.
Unfortunately, John did not live to see the fulfilling of
the plan: the ways in which Jesus suffered, died and was raised from the dead.
He didn't foresee the formation of the Church and what the Church was going to
be asked to do. There are some things that are hard to see when you are
imprisoned and your own neck is on the block. You sit there in the silence and
the grief and you wonder if it was the right thing and if it was worth it. You
will question yourself and have your own doubts. God call and challenges us to
change our expectations so that we can see what he is and to have better goals
than what we demand of him and others for ourselves.
That means we can start by changing what it is we are
expecting this Christmas. Instead of trying to keep trying to keep Christ in
Christmas, try keeping Christ in Christians. If we can make room for him in our
cells, then maybe the door to freedom will swing open wide and we will walk,
finally free.
As
I sit here on a cold Saturday night and reflect on the lessons that are before
for Sunday, and on the things that have happened this week, it is almost unfathomable
all the things that need to be completed in ministry. There is the day in and
day out things. There are little things that need to be done so that other,
much bigger things can happen. The way needs to be prepared for the coming
King. Roads need to be improved. Bridges need to be strengthened and shored up.
Then the King’s servants will announce the coming King's arrival.
Essentially,
that is what Advent is about: rebuilding roads, rebuilding, bridges and
traveling to meet the King. When we think all is mostly ready, some of us need
to actually get out on the roadway and go looking for the opportunity of
welcoming and escorting the King into the city. In the ancient world, failing
to go out of the city and welcome the King would be to invite disaster upon the
entire city. The King would have the city razed to the ground by his army.
That
is what John comes to do, as his ministry for the people of Israel (Matthew
3.1-10). He works to get them ready for the King. He calls them to repentance
and holiness of life. He challenges the religious and the spiritual people of
his time and calls the leadership not to rely on who and what they think they
are: children of Abraham. Rather, they are to give God the right place, first
place in their lives and in the life of the nation knowing that God has come
near.
They
see him as a holy man and recognize him as a prophet. They know this and see
this because they see how he is dressed and hear his words. Nevertheless, in
spite of this they reject him and his message. Though he reminds the people of
their past and calls these same people to repentance and to a great future,
many reject John as an idealist and a radical and not for real people. His
message does not share their faith, their beliefs and they do not agree with
him. Therefore he is of no account.
How
does this tie into the week? There have been a lot of moments of sudden ministry
this week. There have been a lot of opportunities
to boldly declare the good news of God in Christ. These are moments where one
takes care of a mom and dad whose seven week old son died and you are responsible
for speaking a word of hope to them and to the family at the funeral. These are
moments where you take the time to stop and pray with a fellow clergy who is
ill and to anoint the family with oil. There are moments of courage and even of
disagreement with people who don’t understand or want to be in control when
they are not or worse, are not suited to be. There are moments when the kitchen
tap springs a leak or a friend receives news that they have Cancer. In and
through all of this, there are the opportunities in which we can shine or
shrink; rise or fall.
How
will you preach the gospel this week? What opportunities will you take and whom
will you serve? Don’t worry about how you will be dressed and never mind what
you will end up eating. Concern yourself with what you will preach and how you
will actively demonstrate the Good News. I’ll see out on the road.
As I sit
at my desk in the quiet of my office, I have been reflecting on the Advent and
Christmas that is to come and the sermons that need to be preached over the
next four weeks. The lectionary (from which we draw our rota of readings for
the years and seasons) starts with a wide view in where God is going in terms
of the kingdom. The vision then begins to narrow down into the lives of people
until it comes to the focal point of a little boy, born of a woman and laid in
a manger. All of the hope, all of the love and all of the mercy that God has
and that God is going to use are made available in this one child.
Advent is
not a celebration, nor is it only the precursory preparation to the great
event. It is not about Black Friday or Digital Monday or anything else that the
box stores, Time-Life or the Shopping Channel can dream up to get to you buy
something. Satisfaction and the entrance in to the kingdom that God is building
cannot be purchased or negotiated. Admission is free and needs to be accepted
without condition. Membership has both its privileges and it’s with all the responsibilities
that go with being invited in to be a guest.
Advent is
about getting a new and fresh vision of the kingdom that is growing in spite of
how hard some are working to stop it, to kill it, and to destroy it in favour
of something that is suitable and making God in their own image. Our attention
is slowly turned on the future and what it might hold. Remember the furour over
the end of the Mayan Calendar and the possibility of the end of life as we had known
it? Or even further back when we though our digital age was about to come
crashing down because of Y 2K and
the fact that they had not used a clock that was only yy instead of yyyy? Remember
the fear those such insignificant things cause?
Jesus
reminds that we will not know when the end of this present age will come
(Matthew 24.36-44). What we need to concentrate on are simpler things. God has
promised that there will be a kingdom and that we can be a part of it. We are
in the meantime meant to get ready and be prepared for that moment. And as we
await that moment there are things to do. We need to especially regard the fact
that we need to hold out the hope that we have from God in Christ that the
kingdom is coming and coming soon. The “When” of the coming of our King has been
determined but not foretold to us. We need to be ready and prepared for what is
next. Are you ready for what is next?
There is
a story that is told about a tourist who went to the Lake Como region of
Northern Italy. While looking around, the adventurous tourist discovered a
walled in estate. Peering through the bars of the gated entrance he saw an
amazing courtyard. It had gardens full of flowers and trees and vegetables
divided by immaculately manicured lawns. The Caretaker invited the visitor in
and gave him a lengthy tour which was fully enjoyed.
At the
end of the tour, the visitor asked, “Who lives here, in this great place?” The
caretaker replied, “Just me.” The visitor was astounded. “Where is the Master
who owns this place? When was he last here to at least visit?” In answer the
caretaker said, “well it has been 11 years since he was last here and I get
directions as to what I need to do from his agent.” Flummoxed, the visitor
inquired, “So if the Master was to show up you would be ready for him tomorrow?”
After a
moment, the caretaker said, “No... not tomorrow. I am ready for him today. I am
ready for him today.”
(Just an aside: when I was learning to play the French Horn as a boy, I was given the music of this hymn "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide" without the words. I played it for weeks not knowing what it was. It was not until the day of a competition, that I discovered that I was playing a well known hymn and that the place where we were competing was a Church. quickly learning the words, with some help from my dad, it emboldening me and enabled me to compete to my utmost. Now we uphold the cross for others to see that they might come and follow too.)
This week we recall that
the kingdom is coming, in all of its fullness, with all of the pomp and pageantry,
the power and glory and all the quietness of a thief in the night.
This week we are reminded
of the events that now seem so long ago... and it was only holy week and Eastertide.
We are reminded of how he was arrested and tried repeatedly and by different judges.
All of them demanded truth and then, if they got an answer, rejected it as
impossible, preposterous and an outright blasphemous lie.
Pilate gave Jesus one last
chance to recant; one last opportunity to save himself and to act like one of
us. He had chances to save his own skin and to walk away free but he did not
take. And so Jesus was taken and crucified. He died being proclaimed as a king.
I was talking with a
friend this past week. We have both been standing in spots where kings of this
earth, have been taken and executed by the people. In my friend’s case it was
the Jerusalem Room at Westminster Abbey, where the King James Bible was
authorized and where King Henry IV was killed. In my own case it was a grand
meeting room in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg where Tzar Nicholas II and
his family were arrested and were taken from to be executed elsewhere. I have
stood where the Tsar stood and I have stood at his tomb in Sts. Peter and Paul
Cathedral. None of it is as powerful as recalling what happened that last
night, as Jesus is betrayed, arrested, beaten and eventually dying.
I have never been to the
places where he lived... where he preached and he healed. I have never seen the
hill where he died. Yet, I now his life, his presence and his healing in my own
life in this moment...and in this moment, etc... Jesus is more real to me now
that any king or Queen, any prince, ruler power or even Bishop. Thus maybe it should be recognized that there
really is power in the blood of the king. We need to know that we have failed
and fallen and that we need his strength and mercy to help us stand up again.
There is a line in the
movie, “The Passion of the Christ” that has stayed with me and I come back to
it now and again. The scene is Jesus has fallen under the weight of everything
he is doing and going through and one of the soldiers sarcastically asks him, “Can
you get up your Majesty?” the soldier clearly wasn’t aware of the power that there
is in the blood of the king. He wasn’t aware of what God was accomplishing in
Christ for him and the rest of the world. And he was not aware of what God
could do to him in his anger over the execution of his Son. It is why Jesus
prayed, “Adda, forgive. They don’t know what they are doing.” It wasn’t the
force of the soldiers; neither was it a fear of the critics and the scoffers nor
the strength of the nails that kept Jesus on the cross. It was our need for
love grace and mercy of God that had him remain there.
So then the next time you
pray “Our Father in heaven,” remember that you are praying for his kingdom not yours
and for his will to be done in you and not yours in the world. That is a
kingdom worth coming into.
This a big Sunday coming up for this Sunday me
in a few ways. First, the Bishop is coming and is going to preach and participate
in the worship on Sunday. Having the Bishop present at his Cathedral always
adds something as well as an extra layer of busy-ness.
Second, it is All Saints Day in the life of the
Church and thus is the anniversary of my ordination to the sacred priesthood –
something to celebrate – six years of full time priesthood. I have spent the
week, thinking on and reflecting on the whole of my ministry, the people I have
ministered to, the people who have ministered to me, the kindness and the
generosity of communities and individuals. It has made me think of how faithful
God has been through some many things over the course of the... ummm 23 years,
I have been in ministry: first as a Church Army Captain and then as a deacon
and priest.
Most importantly, it is a festival Sunday this
Sunday and it is All Saints Day. and there is baptism in the service this
coming Sunday. I love to do baptisms. It was 17 years ago this past Sunday
October 27th that I did my very first baptism – my oldest son. He is
now working on his own ministry and being a leader in the wider community. His
younger brother is starting on that very same path. I baptized him, with the
Bishop present on Advent Sunday, nearly 11 years ago.
Why is this important? Because these are all the
things that happen in the life of all of God’s saints and yes we are becoming
one of those kind of people.
Every single one of God’s saints, moreover, has
their numbers. Numbers have a way of reminding us of whom we are and where we
have been. Numbers can guide us to where we need to be and the things we need
to do in terms of a day to day basis. We tend to think of saints as being dead
people. Dead people who lived long ago and who now live in stain glass windows.
They are people whom the sun shines through. If you take a walk around the
Cathedral, one of the things you will notice is who we remember in terms of
holy people – lives that are examples to us, that we might be faithful in the
risk of faith in our moment. These are memorials to the bishops, clergy and spouses
who have served in this diocese and have gone on to glory along with those who
have remained nameless but still are n=know to God. We need to become and are
becoming by the grace of the living God, those kinds of people.
The ambition of the Christian life is not to
have a monument that needs to be maintained on this earth. Nor is it the goal
to have people remember you and softly whisper your name with sweet affection
every time that they think of you. The goal is to be faithful to God through
Christ so that you and others can get home. We need saintly people to encourage,
guide and sustain us, whether they are here with us in the body or are at home
with the Lord. That means the presence of some saintly people are going to move
us, cajole us, afflict us so that we might be move for God and the sake of God’s
elect, God’s people and his Church. The Gospeol must comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Maybe the most important thing about this Sunday
is that we will come together and enter together into the presence of God and a
great cloud of witnesses, be encouraged and we will learn to see the kingdom of
God extended and praise God for that with heart, soul and voice. That is worth
celebrating.
When you pray to God, how do you approach God? Do you
see yourself as a hero or heroine? Or do you come as a zero before the throne? It is
important to note that this week’s parable (Luke 18.8-14) is told to those who
think themselves righteous (right with God) because of who they are and what
they do. What is not recognized often by those same people is that they are
mistaken for they are often self deluded and thus self righteous because of the
state of their hearts.
Such people tend to look down their noses at the others
around them and treat others with active contempt because these self made
righteous people are unaware of the state of their own hearts and are unaware
of who they are in facing a holy, righteous God. They treat others as zeros –
as if they are nothing; as if they are naught. They should, if they knew what
God was asking and what Jesus teaches, know how to treat a neighbour and help
them to be a +1 on their own scale. They ought to work to build the people
around themselves up. But they don’t. Such religious people don’t even live in
such a way as to help others see that they are missing something in their lives
by living as God has instructed. The self involved don’t work with God to help
the world around them to see that they are -1 and can be something more. We ought
to work at seeing them as 10+ which is what we all hope to be someday by the
grace of God. Hoity-toity people work at making everyone else a zero – a nothing,
a naught.
You might ask, “Why these people do this?” Some will do
so out of their own childhood and background. They might be completely unaware
of it, but it still happens. Perhaps it is a lack of self esteem and/or sense
of self. Sometimes it is out of a belief that they are superior to people
around them. Such people degrade their neighbours to make them zeros in order
to make themselves a +1. I have seen such things from people who think on themselves
as true believers. Such folks are slick and smooth. They are warm and friendly
until your needs impinge or conflict with theirs; then there is contempt, scorn
and the possibility of public humiliation for the one who gets in the way. It
may be that you think I am being too hard on such people. Please keep in mind
that I regard such people to have lost touch with the reality of their won
heart and have missed the call and purpose of God’s own heart where their own
lives are concerned. We need to love them every bit as much as the poor; the
least, the last and the lost because surely they are in that company.
Just as difficult to deal with is passive contempt. This
is when people act as if others around them do not matter. Passive contempt
reduces a person to naught because a neighbour, another person is paid lip
service but then the offender acts in such a way that he or she reduces their
target to zero by the way they act.
So how do we work at removing contempt for our neighbours
from our lives?
First, we need to remember who God is and what the state
of our hearts are. The Tax Collector considered ( and regarded by everyone, not
just the Pharisee) as a loser, as a zero because of his occupation and entanglements
with the Empire is the one who went away from his encounter with God as the one
in relationship with the almighty because he knew the state of his heart and
his need for mercy. A changed heart leads to a different, a transformed life. The
Tax Collector left the place of prayer and of worship a different man. He
needed to go and live it, which is why he left. The Pharisee was only
interested in his resume and how impressive he was. He was in effect praying to
himself and not interested in God’s or anyone else’s opinions. He stayed and
went nowhere.
Second, let us keep our eyes on the Master and our minds
on the mission. The mission of our parish is to seek, to see and to serve God
in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We need to seek and to see Christ in each
other in the lives of the people around us. We seek him because we desire to
serve him when we find him. We love others and care for them because it is
Christ in their lives that we are seeing and serving. God is at work in the
lives of the people of this city. Won’t you go and find him and when you find
him serve him with all that he has to offer you? Isn't it time that we got rid
of the flimsy excuses and the weak armour of our own self righteousness to take
the risk of putting ourselves in the nail scarred hands of our God and asked
for him to be merciful to us, sinners? Isn't this the kind of prayer that is
worth praying? Isn't that what takes us from being naught to being heroes and heroines
in the eyes of our Father?
There once was a man who loved the Lord and loved to
spend time in prayer. And it happened that the Lord made it known to the man
that a great flood was about to destroy his village and all who did not get to
safety. The man made this known to his friends and neighbours and everyone prayed
and got ready to leave, except the man who prayed. The day finally came and a
great flood came to this village and everyone was ordered to evacuate. But the
man who had prayed refused to leave his home. Instead, he prayed to God and
asked God to save him. Then he climbed up on the roof of his house to await his
salvation from God.
A short time later, a constable came by in a large truck,
that was able to get through the rising water. The constable called out the man
on the roof who had prayed after he had back up his truck to the house so that
the man could up down into the pan of the truck from the roof and escape.
However, the man on the roof called out to the constable and said, “Don’t
worry! I am fine! God will save me!” After unsuccessfully pleading some more,
the constable left the man on the roof behind.
A couple of hours later when the water had risen several
feet, a couple came to the man on the
roof and called to him, wanting him to
come and get in their boat with them. But the man on the roof refuse, noting
that the boat could hit a log in the fast flowing water. And so the couple left
the man on the roof behind and made their escape.
Another hour or so later and after the water was nearly
to the man on the roof, a helicopter came to the house and the helicopter crew
pleaded with the man to tie the rope they had let down to him, around himself
and they would lift and take him to safety. The man on the roof, shouting above
the roar of the helicopter’s rotors said, “No thanks; no way! My God will save
me!” The helicopter crew could only hover and watch as the overwhelming tide
washed the house and the man on its roof away. The man on the roof died.
When the man got heaven he went in to see God and asked, “Sir,
I prayed that you would rescue me... how come you didn't? ” God looked at the
man who had died on the roof and said to him, “You prayed and I answered! I
sent a truck. I sent a boat. I sent a helicopter. Three times I tried to save
you. How come you didn't live out your prayer and respond?”
So
we are eating yet again because “Turkey Day” is upon us. It has been a while
since I have had turkey with all the fixings. I am looking forward to it since
it has been a long time and I like to be fed... don’t you? Yet Jesus challenges those
around him not to seek and satisfy with a meal that will not last forever. We are
not just here to eat our fill or “stog our gobs”. We are challenged to consider
our appetites and how we fill them. And we are called on to consider more than
where the next meal might be coming from.
So
what do we need to do to get a meal that is going to last? It has occurred to
me that there is a parallel here between a regular meal and the Eucharist. Where
else can you go aside from Church, and get a meal that is going to last you a whole
week? Where do we get the strength, the vision and the drive to be the Church
of Christ in the world, if it is not from the Eucharist? To get spiritual and
therefore imperishable food, one must put one’s trust, faith and hope in the
person of Jesus Christ. We are the community of God and we are expected and
required to participate in the person and life of Christ.
Need
a reason to participate in Christ? Want a sign that Jesus is the one to trust? Jesus
himself points out that we don’t need to have someone stand between God and
ourselves, mediating your relationship with God. God responds to you and your
prayers. You need to learn recognize those responses and that is done at the
table with those who are in the journey with you and I. Where we eat is where
we pray. Where we pray is where we share the load with our fellow sojourners. Moreover,
there is the issue of where does life itself come from. If life comes from God
(and we believe as Christians that it does) and we are to participate in Jesus,
then doesn't that make Jesus God? I believe so.
The
people demand the eternal bread as if it is a commodity to be traded and
bartered with when in fact it is a gift. “Give us this bread!” the people demand
of Jesus. Jesus points out that they have him – “I am the Bread which has come
down from heaven”... so it as true spiritually as it is physically: we are what
we eat. But this then means that we must seek Christ in order to eat and to
live. So why do you seek Christ? Is it because you like to have your fill, or because
you seek life in his name? What you do with Jesus is an everyday table matter.
It is also a matter of eternity: what will you do with Jesus? Jesus is the gift
of God for the people of God. Jesus is the bread of life not just for you, but
for your congregation and your city through you also.
And
to be sure, on this weekend when we stop to give thanks for all of God’s good
gifts that we find around us, some of those gifts are disruptive just like
Jesus himself. God’s truth disrupts our systematic dishonesty and sin. God’s
grace upsets our stingy selfishness. God’s mercy dislocates our hardened hearts
to give hearts of flesh to deal with our predilection towards indifference to both
God and neighbour. God’s justice disrupts and exposes our unjust nature,
relationships and ways with both God and neighbour.
The
gift of God’s presence through bread and wine disrupts our ideas and thoughts
of what is normal and right as well as our trends towards complacency and self
involvement. We need to stop and recognize this thanksgiving that our hands
were empty and then God, our God filled them, allowing us to give and to serve
others.
All
good gifts around us are sent from heaven above – will you open yourselves to
receive what God wants to give to you so that in turn, you might give thanks
back to God and give to his people? Is about the harvest and giving thanks, yes! But it must also make us raise our expectation that the kingdom and the Eternal City are coming - after all another, much better feast awaits.
When
I pooled the articles together for this issue of the Caledonia Times, I noticed
something interesting. By happy circumstance there was an overall theme and
tone to the issue... namely the need to listen. I am discovering that everybody
wants to be heard and there are some who maintain that it is there right to be
heard. Yet we need to stop and consider carefully that if all of us are talking
and typing, who is going to stop talking and start listening. Might I suggest
that listen is at the very core of what is to be a Christian? It is the start
of obedience to God’s will for both ourselves and for others. It enables us to
be followers and to be effective in our discipleship so that those around us
are bless because we have listened, done and led as God has called and told us
too. And yes I believe that God is still speaking to and enabling and leading his
Church.
There
is a verse of scripture that comes to mind here: “Be doers of the word and not
hearers only” (James 1.22) failing to connect our doing with our listening does
not make us disobedient. It makes the Church and its ministry obtuse and thus irrelevant.
It is the very thing that so many fear and recoil from though seemingly they
fail to hear and heed both the Word and the Spirit. Failing to listen to God
and what God asks of us makes us irrelevant because we have not heard and
therefore have not received what was needed; to have something to offer and
give, we must first listen and receive. The danger is not in being unconnected to
the world through our life and ministry but being irrelevant to God. It is his
mission, his call and we are his people and his Church.
I
think you would agree that you and I cannot steer a parked car. God cannot
guide the motionless Christian. There is no spiritual life without listening.
We have stopped up our collective ears and we are going to do things the way we
think they ought to be done. What we need to do is to stop and listen for the
Shepherd’s voice. We need to hear him so that we can be led to and through the
valley, even if it seems like death. We need to quiet ourselves so that we can
listen and then respond in appropriate ways with fitting action in the required
time.
Failing
to listen to God as individuals and as community causes us to become obtuse and
irrelevant. In turn we then fall way (like lost sheep) and face both death of
personal life and destruction of our faith communities. It is only in listening
that we follow and find life. It is only in Christ that we live and move and
have our being. And the obvious implication is that we find it nowhere else but
in God who is in Christ.
Holy
listening helps us to discover where our service and our sacrifices are to be
offered. Holy listening helps us to discover where our altars are – those places
and spaces where we discover we are needed and are needed by God to offer
ourselves to him and to neighbour. We make the sacrifice and offer the gifts
that others might hear and see so that they might live.
I remember a parishioner from a while back, coming to me
and telling me that he was going out to his cabin for the weekend: thus he
would not be in Church Sunday night. He wanted to let me know this because he
and the family would not be back in enough time to be ready for Church Sunday
evening. “That’s fine,” I said, “But know that you will be missed!” The man was
shocked judging the look on his face. To my comment he replied, “And PLEASE sir
don’t go preaching about cabins on Sunday... that it’s wrong not to be in
Church because you are out in the cabin... sir, I loves me cabin!” I thought about
this for a moment and realised something important. My parishioner wasn’t
asking for permission to be absent from church, he was feeling guilty about not
being there when everyone else was going to be. He didn’t want me to make an
example of him and his choice not to be there. So I response, I reminded him,
“You will be missed because you are not with us but will still love you. And if
your conscience is bothering you, we’ll be there at Church and we hope you will
there too.”
This story seems to be linked to the experience of the
villainous manager (Luke 16:1-13) who was charged with squandering his master’s
resources. The Master must have believed the charges that were brought to him
by people from outside the household, because when the manager arrived to
attend his master, his master fired him. The manager was using what was not his
in a very poor and scandalous manner – similar to that of the prodigal son who
devoured his portion of his Father’s wealth by living lost and near death (Luke
15).
If the manager had been a household slave, the matter
would probably have been life or death. But this man was a free man. He served
the master as a free man and he was not a member of household. He had to make
his way in the world. He evaluated his situation and realized that he could not
do for another house as he had done, his career as a manager was done and his
reputation was in tatters. He was not built to dig ditches, He was too proud to
accept charity through debasing himself to beg the generosity of strangers but
he needed to be able to look after himself. So he devised a scheme.
He called in all of his master’s debtor’s and had them
remove the interest and his portion of the dealings (to which he was entitled)
so that when he was penniless, he would have friends to whom he could go and
stay because he was kind to them and reduced their financial burdens. The more
mercy he showed the mater’s debtors, the more places he would have to stay. It
would be a better existence than being on the street begging from them and
others.
What is interesting is that the manager didn’t try to
deny what he had done. He didn’t plead for leniency or seek the mercy of the
master in the face of judgment. All he could consider was how to save himself in
the moment. The manager wanted to spare himself the pain and anguish of having
been caught and now fired for his indiscretions. The shocking thing about this
story is that the master complimented the unsavoury manager for his ability to
look after himself. He wanted to secure his immediate future and did a good job
doing it. The master did not compliment the manager for how he had acted in
office but for looking out for himself in light of his new circumstances.
Security, peace and plenty are what most people seek.
Riches and fame might provide them for a while but such things are fleeting. They
are actually a false sense of security and wellness precisely because they are
temporary things. How we deal with such things shows how we will act and treat
eternal things, which have the ability to give life. We have to decide who or
what we will serve. Service leads to sacrifice and sacrifice becomes worship. Whom
shall we serve?
If we found ourselves before God tonight and we are each
asked, “Why should God let us into his heaven?” how would you respond to such a
query? Consider carefully that from that moment and that place, what one is
going to need is not a clever plan or a series of willing hosts but the very
things I have already mentioned: grace, mercy and clemency. There is a need in
this moment to ask for those things, knowing that God is waiting and ready to
offer you and all who ask. We need to ask God not to be good to us but rather
for God to be God; our God. We need to be willing to ask the Master to forgive
and to lead us in “into green pastures, beside still waters, into right pathways
and even through the valley of the shadow of death... even for his own name’s
sake.” (Psalm 23) Be prepared not only for eternity, be prepared for the moment
and be ready to honour and serve God, wherever he may call and send you.
Maybe you have heard the joke
about the airplane that was flying from Vancouver to Toronto early one morning.
On route during to Toronto, the plane crashed in a horrible ball of fire right
on the 49th Parallel, the border between Canada and the United
States. The question was asked of the
officials overseeing the awful scene, “Where are we going to bury the
survivors?”
Of course one does not bury
the survivors. And that seems to be the point that Jesus is making to the Pharisees
in telling these series of parables in Luke 15. “Sinners” are coming to Jesus:
the least the last and most definitely the lost of the nation are coming to
Jesus because they want and need to be found. Being lost is not just about
finding one’s self. Being lost or getting lost is to cause and face utter and
total destruction. And people are coming to Jesus that they might be found.
They are coming to Jesus because they can see that life is different with Jesus.
Following and being with Jesus means that things in your life can and will
change. Your life will find a new purpose and that such a life is going in a
new direction and often in opposition to the life that has been previously
lived.
Religious people tend to not
realize this very thing. They are often satisfied with their lives: earning a descent
wage by holding a respectable job, owning a home, has the right kind of life,
clothes and food to eat. Such people are
glad to show up at Church services on time sitting in their special spots showing
up to see who else is showing up and what they are like. Such people don’t need
to be found because they don’t know they are lost.
Jesus notes in his stories
that there is only one sheep and one coin that is lost. What most don’t
consider carefully is that the Shepherd leaves the flock in the care of hired
hands and goes to seek that one sheep. There are risks, for the sheep, the
Shepherd and for the flock, who, complaining that the black sheep is gone again
from the flood and the shepherd is seeking her. All the while the rest of the
flock are muttering, “it is all baaaaad, yet agaaain!”
A powerful image of the stories
is comparing God to a woman who has lost a coin and is going to look for it. There
is a plan and a lot hard work to sweep the floor and make a careful search for
the coin. She lit the lamp and is careful with each stroke of the broom on the
dirt floor as she looks for the coin.
And when the lost are found
and are safe from harm and destruction, the community is called together to
celebrate the found and the great things that God is doing in the lives of the
community. It is not enough in our modern day to seek out people to be members
of our congregations just so that we can be proud of the pew numbers and hopefully
pilfer the pockets, purses and accounts of the willing to support material
ends. The mission of the community of God is to draw people to Christ by how we
live our lives so that others who are lost can be found, find purpose for the
life that is being given and join us in drawing of the city to Christ. After
all, Jesus himself came to seek and to save that which is lost. So let’s get
found and found together. Let's live like we are survivors and not be buried with the rest!
This is an important
Sunday for our parish is some ways: 1) we are making our worship time start a
half an hour later than it has been in the past few years, 2) we are facing
some major building and finance issues around roofs and other things, 3) we
need to fill some key leadership roles, in particular the treasurer and the
Secretary for Church Committee, and 4) this is the start of the third year of
my four year term as Rector and Dean. So I think it is important that we start
this third year together with this prayer, this collect:
Stir
up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people,
that
richly bearing the fruit of good works,
we
may by you be richly rewarded;
through
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who
is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one
God, now and forever.
As I reflect
on the words of this collect and consider the words of Jesus in the Gospel for
Sunday (Luke 14:25-33) to those with him on the journey to the City of
Jerusalem, there are some things in our lives that we need to relinquish and
some things we had better do. First of all, we had better relinquish the things
that are going to keep us from following Jesus as his disciples. What needs to
be given up, will vary from person to person. For some it is going to be financial
things, for others it is going to be relationships of one kind or another. For
some it will mean letting go of advancements at work while others will have to
deal with failing health. We are all going to have problems, issues, threats,
challenges, and hurdles which are going to have to be overcome. We are going to need to make Christ and his
kingdom, the centre, the top priority and the focus of our lives.
And as the costly,
crossly way of life becomes more of a reality in us, as we follow Christ and seemingly
move further and further away from what family and friends, neighbours and
communities think we should be doing, they are going to think that we “hate”
them. We won’t look like them, sound like them or act like them. Our goals, our
plans and what makes us happy won’t match up. Our priorities, our objectives
and our way of living is going to make us stand up and stand out and not
necessarily in a positive or pleasant way. Our families will think that we have
abandoned them, though nothing could be further from the truth.
Jesus calls
us: Ibis ad crucem! (to the cross you
go!) in plain thinking and speaking we are asked to make the kingdom, seeing it
grow and mature in our lives and in the lives of others the top priority of the
work of our congregation and diocese. We are called to come and accept then go
and bear the crosses given to each of us for the sake of all. We are called to
be imitators of Christ. We are called to be there in the mess that is this life
and to faithfully live the dyings and risings of the Lord Jesus that must be
lived out in everyday life. And we are going to need support in doing that
which is what makes me happy about the first line of the collect for Sunday: “Stir
up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people...” God will come to those whom
Christ has called will renew, revive and refresh those who are working to see
the kingdom of God come in the earthly community. It is not all on us. We are
undergirded by the presence of God himself. God is already there in each
moment. God has already foreknown would needs to happen and what needs to be
done. And we need to come and participate in these things – bear our good
works, that in the doing, we would be a blessing and then in turn be mightily
blessed... not because we are gifted, creative, successful or even great or nice but because we are being faithful to God and focusing on the Kingdom.
We need to be
aware that we are going to be called upon in moments of crisis. We are going to
be set upon by circumstance. We are going to be troubled by lack of resources.
But we are not asked by God to be nothing more than faithful to Jesus in towing
our crosses up the hill after him.
What do we
first as individuals, and then as a faith community, need to renounce and
relinquish this week that we might chase Jesus up the hill? What will it takes
for us to have hearts that want Jesus and the kingdom more than anything or
anyone else?
There is a cartoon show my boys like to watch called "Phineas and Ferb". If you have not seen it, its about two, very imaginative, very industrious boys who look to fill each day with adventure and their teenage sister who is always looking to "bust" her brothers. My favourite tag line in the show is this, "Ferb, I know what we are going to do today! Hey where's Perry?
This Sunday is an interesting situation (Luke 13:10-17). Its
about being all tied up. It is about being freed, loosed from those bonds. It’s
about being free and able to praise and worship God uprightly. It is about
being blessed that we might give to others, and others see who God is and how
God works to seek out those who are bound and bent over because they are
oppressed by evil. God comes to seek and to save that which is lost: his
people, his sheep.
It is a repetition from what Jesus proclaimed from the
prophet Isaiah at the beginning of his ministry, “The Spirit of the Lord, is
upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor He has sent
me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s jubilee.”
(Luke 5:1-19) Jesus clearly says that “Today,
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” But then he does not leave
things there. Over time Jesus lives his life to make the fulfillment of the
scriptures an earthly reality.
That’s why in the middle of things, in the middle of
worship and teaching, Jesus stopped everything. He looked at this woman, a daughter
of Abraham, had been bound by an evil spirit for 18 years. The captivity had
taken her way from being able to praise and to worship God. It had taken away
to receive blessing and to pray properly. Jesus looked at her, was moved to proclaim
her freedom from the disabling spirit and then lay hands on her to bless her
for the next steps in the journey. This allowed the woman to stand up straight
and being to live and to worship as she ought too.
But the story doesn’t end there because the president of
the synagogue objects to the work of healing being done on the Sabbath. The confrontation
between the president and Jesus leads to the religious people, the rabbis, the
president, the lawyers and Levites to feeling humiliated. Jesus went as far as
calling them “play actors”, essentially calling them empty and useless vessels
while the ordinary folks were praising God and thankful for the release they
were feeling from the oppression of the demands of the everyday Law and
religion.
We are challenged and called to the same things: to recognize
how we and others around us have been bound to things that are not godly, and
to evil. We are called to work for release and for freedom for ourselves and
for others. Most of all we called to work with Christ to seek and to save that
which is lost: his people so that we can together enter into all the freedom
and abundance of the life of the kingdom
of God through service, first to Christ, then to one another. In this way we
will have grace to turn to the Lord and stand in faith and wonder; stand to be shown
mercy that we might have forgiveness; lift our eyes and hand to heaven because
we know peace and God’s peace causes us to participate in that full life and be
blessed in order that we might give and bless others to help the world to praise
God with everything we are.
Just a quick note to readers to let you know that I am on holidays and will return to writing at the end of August. in the mean time, enjoy what is below.
When I was a teen, I had the
trip of a lifetime in going to what was then the Soviet Union. It was in the
time of Conservatism in the West (Canada had Brian Mulroney as PM and the
Americans had Ronald “Ray Guns” Reagan as their President). And there was the
evil empire of Communist Russia lead by Mikhail Gorbachev. The cold war between
Russian and the West was in full bloom. Along with about 35 others from my high
school, I went on a trip to Russia in the Spring of 1986.
One of the things that I
learned through my Russia experience was that school children were actively discouraged
from being people of faith, people of prayer. Children were asked to sit at
their desks and pray to God, asking for God to provide candy. They would wait
for a few moments. When no candy appeared, the teacher would point out that God
has failed to provide for them. Then the teacher would give them candy and tell
the children that the State and party could provide for them and that there was
no God. Their trust and faith needed to be in the Party and in their
government. The Communist government of the day was atheistic and the Party
believed that so should all the people be.
The trip took me by and into a
number of beautiful former church buildings that had been turned into museums
by the state since officially there was no God, and thus no need for prayer.
Each city we visited had beautiful churches and cathedrals, monasteries and
convents from Vyborg on the Finish border all the way into Moscow. Time and
again, we would see women, with their heads covered, enter into the churches,
they would “disappear” for a bit and return again, seemingly out of thin air. I
learned later that they were in these places to pray and to receive the
sacrament from the clergy – though it was totally unofficial and unsanctioned
by the State.
My trip to the USSR and my
encounters with Russian Orthodox Christians came back to my mind this week as I
am getting ready to travel for holidays and trying to keep my prayer and
spiritual life in order. The disciples come to Jesus early one morning and
respectfully wait for Jesus to finish his Morning Prayer time with the Father.
They knew the place and they went and waited and listened to Jesus as he prayer
to the Father. Then, they asked Jesus to teach them to pray, so that they could
be like John’s disciples, only better because the Lamb had taught them to pray.
Jesus’ disciples wanted to be one up and one better than John’s disciples.
So Jesus obliged them. He said
them, “When you pray, pray this way: Our
Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver
us from evil.” So if we want to examine how we ought to pray, let’s ready to
have what has been taught:
·Know who God is... He is God and he is Father.
He has revealed this through Jesus, his Son. It is how he wants to be known. In
fact, there is a place in the New Testament where we call out to him as “Abba”
or “Daddy” Father. Knowing God as Father in such away runs against everything
we see in our culture today where fathers are concerned. We seems to have
lowered the status of father from know who our father is through God to
thinking he is Peter Griffin of Family Guy or Homer Simpson. This is not who
God our Father is. He is caring and compassionate, loving and merciful as well
as all powerful and holy. God is present to each and to all, ready to respond
to each and to all according to his purpose and perfect will for each and for
all.
·Know that God’s kingdom is coming to this earth.
Are we ready to do his will on earth as it is done in heaven? Are we ready to
have God’s will done in earth, in us as it is done heaven? Living the way God
calls the world to live does not begin with someone else. Living out the
kingdom starts with you and with me. We cannot run away from it. If we are
God’s then it begins by allowing God to do the things in us, to bring us to the
coming perfection at the end of time when we will seek to do his will and serve
God in the way that God intended it to be all along. When we pray your kingdom
come, your will be done we have to be willing to let go of our agendas, our
lists and demands and allow God to bring things to pass in his way and in his
time.
·God knows what’s in our hearts, the question is
do we? Prayer is not so much about the
laundry lists we like to make as it is about preparing the person to be ready
to be an answer to prayer... and not necessarily one’s own prayers. Often when
we pray we are being moved to see the world for how it out of what God sees. If
you cannot steer a parked car what makes you think God can steer you if you are
unwilling to be moved by what you see?
·Don’t let
the good become the enemy of the best God has for you. There is a
temptation to see almost anything as an answer to prayer because we want answers
and we wanted them yesterday. We need to be people of patience who carry an
attitude of fortitude; people who will persist to seek God’s best not just what
we can scrape together in this moment and make it work for now. God’s life,
lived in God’s grace will never lack his blessing. Persist in this life that
you have been given that not only will you be blessed but so will the people
you love most. Prayer is not just about you and God: it is about the community
to which you are connected, that through you God will bless them too. So pray and live alongside your prayers. Don’t
give up - persist in prayer.
·Recognize
that God will give what is right to give, when it is right to give it. Know
that some times, God for the good of the object of your affections might say
not now or no, not this way. God’s timing is perfect because he can see it all.
And we know that God is working all things for the good of those who love him
and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). We are being conformed
to the likeness of Jesus by the Father so that we can be like our brother. And
through our brother, we will become more than conquers though him who has loved
us. In God’s way, in God’s time we will be blessed.
·Contrition and confession: remember who you are
in the face of a holy, powerful glorious God. We are human, formed of the dust
and to the dust we shall return. Remember that God delighted in thinking about
you when he created first in his mind, then in forming us in the dust of this
creation and then seeing us formed in our mother’s womb. Remember to say you’re
sorry for falling short and for missing the mark. Always keep your accounts
with the Father short because the Father is merciful and swift to bless. Ask to
be healed and to be strengthened that you might live for God.
·Pray in a way that draws others into the
experience – Prayer and worship are not just about the words spoken: it is also
about the unspoken desires of the heart and the silences we keep that we might
here the still small voice of the Spirit who is within us. Seek and ask of God
the way a child does of a parent. Persist with honesty and recognizing that if we
know how to give to our children when they ask, how much more is God willing to
respond with his best when we seek and ask of him? If you worship and pray in
this way others will follow. So bring what is on your heart and the things that
you believe only God can deal with and put that on the altar as part of your
liturgy. Then you will see what difference that makes in your life beyond the
walls of the church building.
Take time this week to go to
your prayer closet. Take time once you are there to celebrate your Father and to bless his name
and the things he is doing in you and around you. Remember who you are in the
face of a holy and merciful God and give thanks for the abundance of grace and
goodness. Pray that your Father’s will shall be done in you and through you, that
his kingdom will reign on earth as it is in heaven. It is going to be a risk,
but one that is going to be necessary to take, if the kingdom is going to be
extended.
Martha was the one serving in this week’s Gospel. It must
have been somewhere away; away from the house in Bethany because Martha was in
a flap! She could not find what she was looking for and she wanted to fix a
nice meal because it had probably been a while since Jesus and the 12 had eaten
a proper, home cooked meal. She wanted this meal to be some special because of
that. Yet nothing was going according to plan. Everything was extra work and Mary had disappeared on her so she was rattling around the kitchen with her
frustration at the situation coming promptly to a rolling boil. She was ready
to spill over like a pot, cooking rice with too much water in it.
Then she, stormed out the group and spotted her sister
sitting at the feet of the Master, just like she was “one of the guys”!
"Teacher, don’t you care that I have been left alone to do all this work? Tell
my sister to help me out!"
With compassion for the work and the spirit of Martha,
Jesus points out to the flustered chief cook and bottle washer, “Martha, dear
Martha... Mary has made a better choice and she won’t have what she is
receiving taken away from her.” While some might consider this a ‘slap down’for impatience, it is
not meant to be – just an eye opener and a refocusing of priorities where all of the disciples are concerned. Martha’s
service was being accepted. What Jesus wasn’t going to accept was the
worry and the anxiety that Martha was expressing because of the elaborate
agenda she had set. One dish would suffice. It did not have to be a major
feast. The extra time and energy could be put to other, better uses. As it was
once apply said by a missionary, “God’s work, done God’s way, will not lack God’s supply. “
So what does one do when you're in a spot? What do you do when you think things are going to hell in a hand cart and you cannot tell one end of the egg from the other? Here are some thoughts about serving in the royal
priesthood of all believers:
1)Provision:
There are countless times recounted in
Scripture when God has provided for his people. He provided a son for Sarah and
an heir for Abraham; Abraham found the ram when he need it for the altar
instead of sacrificing Isaac. God gave Hannah a son and she gave Samuel back to
God that he might be a powerful prophet; and be the king maker. God led his
people out of bondage in Egypt, through the Red Sea and fed them in the years
out in the Sinai Desert. God provided a way home from exile in Babylon. And
most of all God have us all Jesus that we might have a way home to him. We need
to recognize that even the poorest man is equipped with everything that God can
give him. On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided. Eat and be filled
then feed that others that you might be followed into the kingdom.
2)Prayer:
Where prayer is focused, power falls. I remember a gentleman telling me that he
would not pray the Lord’s Prayer because he didn’t need bread, he had lots in
his house. The point of prayer is not to get things but to communicate thanks
and ask “those things which are requisite and necessary for the body as well
for the soul (BCP).”Give us this day our daily bread is to ask God to provision
the day and the demands that are going to be place on our resources so that we
can be faithful to proclaim the kingdom, that the kingdom would finally come. Prayer
provides the connection between God and ourselves, both personally and
corporately to have the power and the direction we need to proclaim and the
power to do it well.
3)Power:
there is a little chorus we used to sing all the time: “For I am building a people
of power, and I am making a people of praise. We are given by God through the
Spirit “dynamos” or dynamite. Power in God’s kingdom is not given to
those who rule but to those who serve. Leadership is not about position,
provision or power. It is about those who serve and those who need to be
served. Power is given to enable the servant to serve the least, the last and
the lost not ourselves. Divine power is not given so much to turn the world
upside down as it is given to turn the Church inside out.
4)Persistence:
Christianity is a way of life that we need to persist in: day by day, day after
day. It is the only way in which the Church is going to grow and mature into
the Body of Christ. We need in our modern society, to learn how to persist in
prayer, in wisely using the provisions we are given and sharing, and operate sensibly
with the power and authority to serve and care for those who are around us as
neighbours. We need to persist in blessing and being blessed. Blessings are not
just for fair weather but for the every day – fair or foul weather. We continue
to sail on, even when life is heard and the going not so clear. Life may not be
what we would call “fair” but we do know that God is always faithful.
5)Proclamation:
we are to announce the coming of the one, true King and to tell how God has
provided for you and for the community, and to let people know that the same
kingdom is coming near to them, whether they respond or not. When the world
recognizes that we are being provided for, that we are active in prayer and in
being answers to prayer, in being powerful and persistent servants of the
least, the last and the lost in the name of Christ, then do we make the kingdom
fully known to this world of God’s.
There will always be the worries of ministry and somehow will
some things get done. Nevertheless, when we recognize that there is provision, prayer, power, the need for persistence and the need to proclaim the greatness of God's grace and love, we are well
on our way home.
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